Winston lifted his pack and dumped a load of wilted cabbage into the pit at his feet. They piled up on top of the other plant matter and he shook his head as he sat his pack down then dumped another bucket of manure on top of the whole mess. The smell of rotting vegetables and poop was strong and he gagged as he finished. He took a few steps away from it all before he summoned some water to clean out the bucket he was using.

The last batch of vegetables hadn’t come out well. The beans had at least scraped a low-quality rating but the cabbage had come out with a ‘poor’ rating so Winston had decided to just toss it all into the fertilizer pits. It wasn’t the best solution but it would at least let him get something out of them.

It was Monday and he needed to clear at least 50 bushels of grain in the next five days. He’d spent the rest of Sunday switching all his fields over to grain but had run out of logon time. Now it was Monday night and he was already behind schedule. He’d stored around 9 bushel so far but that wasn’t even half of what he owed the guild for this week. He was going to have to up his game. Luckily his single trump card was now off cool-down.

He pulled out his priest staff as he headed towards his main wheat field. He needed a boost and he had the spell to do it. The problem was how to use it. He’d done well with his other priest spell, and even managed to create an extra one. That had been an act of desperation but it was effective at the time. Right now he needed to get a handle on ‘Norish the Land’. It was a class skill, and Grove Tender was a rare class so it should be a powerful skill. Winston had to admit it had potential but in its current state it didn’t offer much more than a minor yield boost. That was useful but he had to do better.

If he was going to start really moving forward he needed more tools. He needed to get his blessing to at least beginner rank and he had some ideas. The spell infused the land with divine power that let the crops grow faster. The first thing he’d try would be to use the power to change the soil composition to something closer to what the crop needed. The wheat and corn grew alright in Brethren Plains but if he could give the soil composition a nudge it should make a solid impact on both the quality and yield. That would be on top of the purely numerical boost the skill would get from leveling up.

He pulled a wheat seed out of his pack and held it. The ground here was decent for wheat but even with the fertilizer he was still draining the soil of essential nutrients because he wasn’t rotating crops and didn’t have the right fertilizers. That was something he should probably fix in the long term, but he didn’t have a good rotation crop and he had a schedule to keep. He couldn’t keep two fields going. At least not with his current skills and time commitments. If the courtyard had more space he could at least leave one field to fallow and switch between them but for now he was stuck.

The best solution for now would be a better fertilizer and his Nourish The Land spell. He focused his mind on what the ground here was missing. It was hard to translate the feelings he got into words, but he figured it would probably work better if he just used the feelings his soil sense skill was feeding to him and sent those in turn back into the blessing.

He raised his staff, and willed the land to change. His staff lit up with silverlight and divine power poured out of him and into the soil. He couldn’t cover the whole field but with his level ups and bonus FP from his farmer skill he now had over 110 FP. That was just enough for a quarter acre field. Since he’d converted all the smaller plots over he still wouldn’t get full coverage but he could at least cover his main field.

[Your Runa Skill Level Has Increased!]

[Runa Skill level is now Beginner II]

[Your Nourish The Land Skill Has Increased!]

[Nourish the Land has reached Novice V!]

[Duration: Three Days

Cooldown: 124 Hours

Cost: 10 FP per 1000ft2

Effect: Increases crop yield in area by 26% while active]

Winston felt a bit disappointed. He’d done something wrong. He hadn’t made it over the beginner hump and his attempt hadn’t worked. The soil composition hadn’t changed.On the other hand, his focus had leveled the skill up three times and 26% was a damn big bonus. Eventually that skill would make his career but for now it was just helpful. Once he was getting say a 90% bonus from his farming skills, then could drop another 150% boost from his blessing he could do the work of three farmers without any other skills at all.

Those thoughts had to wait for another day. At least with the boost he’d get a good harvest out of his field for the next few days.

“I thought you usually used that on your vegetables or those berries you are growing.” Rimmi asked as he walked to where Winston was looking at his field.

“Well, I’ve only gotten to use it twice and that was the plan. Unfortunately I need to make a crap ton of money this week. If I can stockpile enough grain I can use that to buy off the guy I need to haul all this for me.” Winston asked.

“Why? What are you doing?” The gnome asked.

“I’ve ordered some magical sprinklers from a city a few zones away. I’ve got the money to pay for them, but I’ve gotta make enough money for the courier. It’s gonna cost a fortune to send him on a journey that’ll take weeks. I’m gonna pay him off with grain. Then he can sell it when he gets there.” Winston explained.

Rimmi looked at him. “We’ll I’ve got some grain saved up, as well as the potions I just made. Think I could get in on that? I’ve been looking for someplace to sell them.”

“Don’t see why not. Plus with you getting on board it’ll offset some of the costs. I’ll contact Troll. I’m guessing he’s not gonna be happy to be send halfway across the continent.”

“Who’s Troll?”Rimmi asked.

“Trollogistics. He’s the courier I use to buy stuff in the city or to take my stuff there to sell.” He’s the only courier in the area I could get to come out this far.” WInston explained.

“Guess I better start getting ready then. It’s gonna be a short week.” Rimmi said as he headed back towards his own fields.

***********************************************************

Trollogistics sat up abruptly when his interface chimed. He’d been getting worried. His mole client hadn't messaged him in a while and he was worried something had happened to him. There were alot of people he didn’t recognize around town and the player population of the city seemed to have swelled over the past few weeks.

There were at least three separate guilds hanging around and the whole city seemed to be boiling. There were a steady stream of people spawning in the city graveyard as they died in small skirmishes in the area around the city. There’d been a few larger guild battles as well and he wanted no part of any of it.

A guild war was both a blessing and a curse for small timers like him. There were many lucrative contracts to be had, but you ran the risk of getting stomped on by some level 60 who was bored or who wanted to stop a rival guilds goods from moving..

Trollogistics was considering just packing up and heading for some other dead-zone. That would be the most pragmatic decision. The only problem was he’d be abandoning his only client and any possible work he had. He checked the message and sighed with both relief and trepidation.

Trollogistics: Yes?

Win Mills: How would you feel about a run to Grenville?

Trollogistics froze as he absently popped open a map. The name sounded familiar but that place was…..

Trollogistics: That’s on the other-side of the damn continent. I’ll take weeks to make a trip there and back and this whole cities getting ready to boil over.

Win Mills: True, but the pay will also be good and you’ll be getting out of town for a while. I need you to pick up some magical items I’m having made there. I can pay you in grain, then you can sell it in the better markets there to make your money. The other farmer here also wants in the on the deal. He should have a couple dozen bushels of grain as well as some alchemy potions I’ve got nearly that much grain and a bunch of other stuff. I figured you wouldn’t do it for less than two grand or so.

Trollogisitics: Three thousand would be better for two weeks work but I’ll take two if you throw on 5% of what I carry.

The conversation paused for a moment as the client thought it over.

Win Mills: Deal, come pick everything up Friday night and we’ll be ready. Oh, and bring me some buckwheat or peanuts.

Trollogistis sighed as he ended the call. He needed the work but it left him in a bit of a pickle. He’d have to carry a lot of grain and his rickshaw simply wasn’t big enough. The other issue was he’d finally hit level 20 in Wagon Driver and it was time to decide how he wanted to advance his class.

He wanted to select courier to fly along the roads like the wind, however his business, such as it was, was hauling grain. He’d need extra capacity for the trip and if he decided to stick with Win then he’d need to choose teamster instead. He didn’t really want to but the mole-man was leaving his skills quickly and was already dealing in legitimate size trade. Once the mole hit Apprentice ranks he could probably keep his wagon in work all by himself. That bore thinking about.

Once he committed he could also start trading in ore and lumber. It wasn’t the business he’d imagined but if he trained another troll and used the two as a team….. It was doable he decided, maybe even prudent. With a month until the expansion this was the perfect time to get into commodities market. There’d be plenty of work for a teamster with a decent wagon and solid speed.

The question was if he was willing to stake his characters build on a single odd mole-man. His brain said no, but his gut said yes. There was something about him that made Trollogistics think that sticking around would be a good decision in the long run. Sighing he opened his character sheet and selected his class options before selecting teamster.

[You Have Selected the Teamster Job Advancement!]

[You Have Gained the Skill Advanced Packing!]

[You Have Gained the Skill Increased Mount Endurance!]

Trollogistics sighed as the light finished flashing. He had to go buy a new wagon.

****************************************************************

Winston did his best to weather the glare that Abby was shooting in his direction. “You just bailed. We were supposed to be working. It’s not a group project if I have to do everything by myself.” Winston rolled his eyes.

Missing the first meeting of a project they hadn’t started wasn’t the end of the world. In fact Winston had argued there wasn’t much reason to even meet yet. That hadn’t stopped her from pressing the issue and missing the meeting hadn’t helped. In fact she probably though he’d just blown her off because he didn’t want to meet in the first place.

Winston looked into the girl’s furious eyes. Yep, that was probably it.

“I was really sick. I didn’t just blow you off.” He said. “I had to sit through the damn rain during the homecoming game. I felt like crap all Saturday. I’m sorry but I was sick.”

Abby just kept glaring and Winston raised his hands in defeat before walking to his seat in Econ and sitting down. Abby kept glaring but sat beside him so they could work on their project. She pulled out an ancient laptop and sat it heavily on the table.

Winston had borrowed Josh’s laptop for this as he pulled the much sleeker model out and sat it across from Abby’s.

“So we’ve got all the player skill data, the auction info from tailoring items and ingredients. Now what do we do with it?” Abby asked.

“Well we need to import it into a spreadsheet so we can start filtering all of it. Although that much data will probably make my PC explode.” Winston said as he tapped away on his keyboard.

“How do we do that?” She asked.

“I can do it. What you need to decide is what we’re actually looking for. Having a great big blob of data doesn’t really do much for us.” Winston said. That was the problem with big data. It was a powerful tool but having a billion facts didn’t really do much for you unless you had some idea of what you were hoping to see.

“Well, I think we should start with Skill Point distribution. Pull up how many people have a skill point in tailoring and how many people have a skill point in any non-combat skill.” Abby said, after thinking about it for a moment.

Winston ran a few simple filters and winced as his computer chugged on the massive spreadsheet, eventually it spit out what he was looking for. “There are 7.1 million players who have a non-combat skill over Novice rank V. Of those, 467,468 are tailors. That’s around 1 in 15 of players with non-combat skills.” He told her as he looked down at the screen.

“I honestly thought it be higher. Abby said with a frown on her face.

“Well, a non-combat skill isn’t just crafting or gatherings skills. That includes things like Outdoorsman, Dungeoneering, Swimming, and a bunch of other stuff.” Winston explained. “That’s honestly pretty high when you think about it.”

“What if we just look at Crafting and Gathering Skills.”

“Then it’s around 1 out of 8, it’s the fourth most popular crafting profession after Blacksmithing, Alchemy, and Cooking.” Winston replied.

“Alright, then I suppose the next question is, are those numbers statistically significant and how can we prove it enough to write a paper.” Abby said thoughtfully. “I suppose we’d have to look at supply and demand. How many clothing items are actually produced in game, and how is that divided among the people with the tailoring skill.”

That actually sounded reasonable. Abby was smart, Winston would give her that. “Alright, but that’s in a totally different file so it’ll take a bit.” He said as he pulled up yet another massive data file and started to filter it down.

The two worked steadily through class and headed out of the room together when the bell rang.

“So, what’s so important in game that you blew off our meeting?” She asked as the two headed out the door and across the building towards the Junior lockers.

“I didn’t blow off the meeting. Although, I am ridiculously busy this week.” Winston said with a sigh. “I’ve gotta harvest 2000 gold worth of crops before friday night. I’m on pace, but it’s damn annoying. I’ll be glad when Friday comes and I can relax. I might not play at all this weekend. I’m tired of looking at the same stupid dirt.”

“Well, do you wanna meet up this weekend to work on our project? Say, saturday night?” She asked.

“Can’t” Winston said, grinning. “Got a date.” That seemed to give the girl pause for a moment and Winston wondered vaguely if abby had a thing for him. That didn’t seem likely but what the hell did he know. Then again, that might just be her upset from getting turned down. Any rejection was still a rejection of sorts. It would sting a little even if she didn’t have a crush on him or anything.

“With Trish, or someone else?” She asked, her moment of hesitation gone.

“It’s with Trish, apparently I was the only who didn’t know she’d had a crush on me.” Winston said with a laugh.

“It was pretty obvious.” Abby said. “Well, good luck then.” She said as split up to head to their lockers.